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UNITED STATE'S OF AMERICA. 1 







Proceedings of the New-York Historical Society, 



ON THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DEATH OF 



WILLIAM H1CKLING PRESCOTT, 



FEBRUARY, MDCCCLIX. 









1 *.«• 



PROCEEDINGS 



At a meeting of the New- York Historical Society, held at the 
Library, in the City of New York, on Tuesday Evening, 
February 1st, 1859, Hon. Luther Beadish, LL.D., Pres- 
ident in the Chair ; 

Charles King, LL.D., President of Columbia College, rose 
and said : — ■ 

Mr. President, Brethren of the Historical So- 
ciety : — It is with unaffected sorrow I undertake the duty 
committed to me of presenting the resolutions I hold in my 
hand. A great grief has fallen upon the nation — for a man 
known to the nation is dead. Vl. H. Prescott, our asso- 
ciate, is dead ; and in feeble, but earnest words, I ask this 
Society to give utterance to the common grief in the following 
resolutions : 

Resolved, That the members of the New York Historical Society have 
heard with deepest grief the news of the sudden death of their illustrious asso- 
ciate, William Hickling Prescott. 

Resolved, That the President of the Society be instructed to convey to his 
family their condolence at the loss of one who was the pride of his country for 
his unequalled success in the culture of history, and who added to the affec- 
tion of his friends the esteem of the intelligent among mankind in every clime. 

It is not exaggeration to say that the nation mourns the 
too early death of such a man as Prescott ; — for who in the 
wide regions of our land, from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
waves, having one touch of kindred with such a nature, and 
such gifts as those of the truthful, brilliant, and genial histo- 



rian whom we mourn, but will grieve that in his hands the 
torch of History has been extinguished ere yet its work of 
illumination was done — that in mid career he has been cut 
dowD, and while yet in the meridian of fame and activity, and 
warmth of life, he has passed at once into silence and dark- 
ness. He has passed — and that is affliction unspeakable and 
immeasurable to those who lived within the charmed circle of 
his charmed and charming life. But his works — they cannot 
pass ; and while our language endures, the Histories of Pres- 
cott will be among its most precious treasures. 

This is not the occasion, nor mine the ability, to attempt 
any critical analysis of his merits as a historian — nor indeed is 
any such needed, for his place is taken and fixed. Of him 
may most truly be said what Cicero writes of the Father 
of History — Historiarn ornavit. He not only wrote history 
with indefatigable research, rare discrimination and unfaltering 
truth, but he adorned what he wrote by his simple, transpa- 
rent, elegant and flowing style. More fortunate, too, in the 
reach and scope of contemporary renown and influence than 
Herodotus, the living type carry Prescott's winged words over 
a world — while the Greek in his lifetime could only read his 
history to Greece assembled at the Olympic Games; and al- 
though the spoken narrative moves more vehemently the lis- 
tening crowd than the printed pages does the reader, the hearers 
of spoken eloquence are comparatively few, while a world 
may be delighted by the book. There is a fine incident re- 
corded in the life of Herodotus — that when addressing himself 
to his countrymen at Olympia, as he related the conflicts of 
the Greeks with the Persians, and the triumph of liberty over 
despotism, and was hailed with the wildest shouts of applause 
and admiration, there stood among the excited multitude a 
youth of fifteen, whose eager face was bedewed with tears as 
he caught the eloquent words of the speaker, and whose heart 
burned within him in admiring emulation. That youth was 
Thucydides, and who shall say that that hour and that scene 
did not determine his future career, and make him in after 
years, as a historian, the master of his master ; and is it not 
quite within the range of probability, that from the glowing 



3 

pages of Prescott, another youth, among his readers or his 
friends, may have caught the sacred fire, and that in the his- 
torian of the Dutch Eepublic we see a parallel for the case of 
the young Thucydides. No one who reads the narratives of 
Prescott, but must feel that there is in them that kindling ele- 
ment which needs but to fall upon natures " finely touched to 
fine issues," in order to develop the true fire of genius. 

There is in the circumstances under which Prescott won 
his way to fame imperishable, a grand lesson for humanity ; a 
noble exemplification of the power of will over infirmity, of 
the rare ability to convert hindrances into helps. It is known 
to every one that the eyesight of Mr. Prescott was so seriously 
impaired, as latterly to make study for him impossible, and 
ever since early manhood to render it difficult. Yet he re- 
solved to make a name in letters, and no obstacle, however 
formidable, could shake that resolution, nor, most happily for 
the world, balk his settled purpose. What picture more 
affecting or more worthy of admiration, than that of our His- 
torian seated in his chair, with his eyes screened from the 
tormenting light, and listening with fixed attention to a raw 
New England lad, who, without understanding a word of the 
language, read to him with the accent and pronunciation of 
New England, the narratives, in their native tongue, of the 
Spanish historians and statesmen ? The Spanish, indeed, as 
well as the other languages of Southern Europe, were familiar 
to him. But none but those who have made the attempt to 
master knowledge through the reading of another, even when 
the book is read in his own tongue, can form any just estimate 
of the extraordinary power of self-concentration, which 
enabled Prescott to possess himself of knowledge thus im- 
parted. 

I say advisedly, possess himself of it — for it was not merely 
acquiring facts and phrases, to be given forth again in form 
and order as he received them, but they became part and par- 
cel of himself, and by a process identical with that which in 
our material frame the physiologists call assimilation, he had 
the faculty of absorbing and assimilating all the heterogeneous 
facts and reasonings of all sorts of writers, and by the subtle 



alchemy of that wonderful brain wherewith he was gifted, of 
transmuting them all into that pure and precious coin which, 
stamped with his own image, and bearing no superscription 
but his own, he has scattered with such princely prodigality 
over the historic page. 

It is Prescott that speaks to us, and not JSTavarrete, nor 
Mariana, nor Sejyulveda — not the archives of Simancas, nor 
the Relazioni Veneti ; and the charm is inexpressible of thus 
finding ourselves face to face with an original thinker, a fresh 
utterer, — and better than they were ever uttered before, — of 
stories heard in part at least before. 

And then in his hands History is mighty in its power of 
delighting, in its power of instructing, and, not less precious 
prerogative, in its power of restraining and avenging. 

What has been finely said by Lamartine of the true office 
of History is most applicable to Prescott — that " the impar- 
tiality of History is not that of a mirror in which objects are 
merely reflected, but that of a judge who sees, listens, and de- 
cides. Annals are not history — history, to deserve the name, 
must be imbued with a conscience, and then in time it be- 
comes the conscience of the human race." 

Who more honorably, more conscientiously than Prescott, 
exercised this great prerogative ? When has he palliated 
wrong, or failed to vindicate right, or to uphold the cause of 
the oppressed, or to pursue with an avenging judgment the 
wrong-doer and the tyrant ? 

Godlike is this great privilege of sitting in judgment upon 
the nations, and few, few indeed have been those who, by the 
consent of mankind, have exercised this privilege with so lit- 
tle of human infirmity. 

Alas ! and again alas ! that he should not have been 
spared to us to finish his labors — that it could not be given to 
him to record, as Gibbon has recorded in a passage pathetic 
almost from its simplicity and truthfulness, his own mingled 
sensations of pain and pleasure at having finished his great 
work : 

" It was on the day, or rather the night of 27th June, 
1787, between the hours of 11 and 12, that I wrote the last 



lines of the last page in a summer-house in my garden. After 
laying down my pen, I took several turns in a walk shaded 
with acacias, which commanded a view of the country, the 
lake and the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was 
serene, the silver orb of the moon was reflected from the 
waters, and all nature was silent. I will not dissemble the 
first emotion of joy in the recovery of my freedom, and per- 
haps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon 
humbled and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind, 
by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old 
and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the 
date of my history, the life of the Historian must be short and 
precarious." 

Not such the fortune of Prescott. He died literally with 
his harness on, in the midst of the battle, yet surely, modest 
and self-denying as he was, not without a sure presage that 
without a "perhaps," his " fame was established." 

Our office here to-night is to mingle common regrets over 
his too early grave, and to heap up honors — unavailing, una- 
vailing indeed, but sincere — on the name of the good Histo- 
rian — so lately our honored associate. But there are around 
me some, lam sure, who will pardon my adding a few words 
of sad reminiscence of the man. 

It was my good fortune to know him almost from the 
outset of his career, when, just from College, he visited Eu- 
rope, partly for the gratification of a liberal curiosity and 
partly in the hope of relief to his injured eyesight. We met 
at the house of a common friend, near Paris---I, by 
several years his senior- — and from that hour I have 
never lost sight of him, and have rejoiced with the joy 
of a friend in each successive advance he made on the 
path to immortality. In his person, manners, heart and 
mind, there was the most beautiful harmony. Who that 
knew him can forget that gentle voice, that winning smile, 
that cheerful intercourse, that tenderness almost of woman, 
that steady and resolute purpose which bespoke his high, 
heroic race. 

Alas ! alas ! we shall know them no more on earth for 



6 

ever, and recalling the nappy past, it remains for us only to 
salute its vanished spirit in the last sad sorrowing words, 
Salve ac Vale, Hail and Farewell ! 

The Eev. Dr. DeWitt observed that he most cordially 
seconded the resolutions just offered by President King. 
They convey a most deserved and appropriate tribute to him 
just removed from us, who combined the highest literary 
distinction with all the elements of a lovely and noble charac- 
ter. Our Historical Society has been called upon often to 
notice and commemorate the death of distinguished associates 
prominent by their literary and scientific attainments, their 
patriotism and their virtues. But never till the present occa- 
sion has it, within the view of its direct object and pursuits, 
met with so severe a loss, or been so strongly urged to a 
most hearty and emphatic expression of their sense of that 
loss. Prescott has become a household word, and his his- 
torical works household treasures. His name and reputation 
as being on the very highest point of eminence in Historical 
renown, are not only recognized, and spread among and in a 
few other countries, but they have become cosmopolitan. 
Even now, while the intelligence of his death is extending, 
we are receiving, and shall continue to receive from all quar- 
ters, the reverberation of the accents of mourning and sympa- 
thy, commemorating the death of the great Historian. Con- 
sidering the physical difficulties with which he had to struggle, 
the labor he employed and the success and distinction which 
he gained, were remarkable. He combined in a singular 
degree almost perfect, thorough, accurate and extended in- 
vestigation, with a happy arrangement of materials, and a 
simple, chaste, lucid and finished style. We were waiting 
for farther ripe fruits from his mind and pen. The third 
volume of his Philip II., was fresh in our hands, evincing at 
least in an equal degree, all the qualities of his former 
works, and we were looking with deep interest for the con- 
tinuation, when suddenly by a prostrating attack, he resigned 
his spirit to God who gave it. In a moment this bright star 
in the firmament of literature was darkened and eclipsed, but 



only to human view, while it rose to a higher sphere with new 
and increasing brightness. 

It is not right to detain the audience from the enjoyment 
of the full tribute which will be rendered by the person of all 
others, best adapted to portray the character and embalm 
the memory of our deceased Prescott; one who was for an 
extended period his intimate friend, who cherished a kindred 
spirit and engaged in kindred labors. 

Mr. Bancroft said : 
Mb. President : With deepest grief we have heard of 
the death of William Hickling Prescott, the illustrious 
Historian, the cherished and honored member of this Society. 
The news has fallen upon us most suddenly and unexpect- 
edly ; we had scarcely risen from the perusal of the volume 
which he had just published, and we found there evidence of 
an ever increasing creative power, richness of expression, a 
style of narrative of irresistible interest, a masterly capacity 
for analysis and combination, fit to draw the picture of a 
kingdom or a people. The world was only beginning to 
bear to him the honors which his last and ablest production 
deserves, when the tidings broke upon us that he had 
ceased to be mortal. 

" He is gone, and hath not left his peer." 

It has been common to refer to sudden death as teaching 
" what shadows we are and what shadows we pursue." On 
this occasion such words are out of place. Prescott passed 
his life in the pursuit of truth, which in its own nature is un- 
changeable, and so he connected himself with that which is 
eternal, securing to his character and his career a solid reality 
and an enduring existence in the memory of his fellow-men. 
Neither can we regard the moment of his death, however sad 
for us, as altogether inopportune for himself. He had just 
completed the publication of the volume which even now is 
enchaining the attention of the intelligent wherever the 
English language is known ; so that he passed away like a 
great commander who falls in the hour of victory, when the 
heat and contest and dangers of the day are over. That his 



8 

last great work has not been carried out to the end which he 
contemplated, is a loss to the world. We may grieve not to 
have from his pen the full history of the formation of the 
Eepublic of the Netherlands, and especially that the story of 
the Armada, with the fate of that stupendous enterprise 
against Protestantism and England, should not have been 
displayed by one whose talent for the vivid representa- 
tion of outward scenes was unequalled. But at whatever time 
Prescott might have been called from earth, he would have 
left some work unfinished, for he belonged to the class of men 
of that delicate organization which leaves it impossible for 
them to live for themselves alone, making of their powers, 
not private possessions, but gifts to the world; and at what- 
ever time he might have received from the great Workmaster 
his summons, so long as consciousness remained he would 
have still been found a laborer; ever to the last obedient to 
the law of duty. 

It has been said that the injury to his eyesight caused his 
devotedness to the career of letters. I hardly think so. 
From his earliest years, he was earnest in the study of all 
that was purest and noblest and best in modern and ancient 
literature. The first time that I can recall having seen him, 
was at Harvard College, as he pronounced a Latin ode that 
he had written to Spring, and his polished lines had a grace 
and elegance which at that early day pointed out distinctly 
the course of life to which he was called. When the effects 
of an accident that affected his sight, became aggravated by a 
severe illness, the inward light shone all the more refulgently 
in his well-prepared mind, and its chambers became bright 
with the clear vision of the purposes which he was to fulfil. 
He disciplined himself for the execution of the great designs 
which he then conceived, with the largest comprehensiveness 
of research. While he gathered books from all quarters, and 
ransacked the recesses of public archives and private collections 
of manuscripts for materials, he dr,ew still more closely his inti- 
macy with the ancient classics, and with modern literature, 
not of France and England only, but of Spain and Italy. He 
made, moreover, a special study of the historic art ; not merely 



by reading the works of illustrious historians, but by the study 
and solitary meditation of what had been said best on the 
manner of writing history. His eyesight was impaired, not 
destroyed ; so that in all the works which he printed, he 
was able at some stages of their preparation to read for two 
or three hours each day. He compensated the necessity of 
using so much the eyes of others by a wonderful development 
of his powers ; he gained the faculty of attention in its highest 
perfection, and his memory took such fast hold of the know- 
ledge that came to him through the ear, that it remained with 
him in exact and well defined outlines, as if it had been writ- 
ten with a diamond pen on tablets of steel. 

His habits were methodically exact; retiring early, and 
ever at the same hour, he rose early alike in winter and in sum- 
mer, at the appointed moment, rousing himself instantly, 
though in the soundest sleep, at the first note of his alarm-bell; 
never giving indulgence to lassitude or delay. To the hours 
which he devoted to his pursuits he adhered as scrupulously as 
possible, never lightly suffering them to be interfered with ; 
now listening to his reader; now dictating what was to be 
written ; now using his own eyes sparingly for reading ; now 
writing by the aid of simple machinery devised for those who 
are in darkness ; now passing time in thoughtfully revolving 
his great theme. For this reason, at the period of his life 
when he rode much on horseback — and he was an excellent 
and fearless rider — it was his choice and his habit to go out 
alone ; and in his stated exercise on foot you might be sure 
that, when by himself, his mind was shaping out work for the 
rest of the day. In this way, systematic in his mode of life, 
he proceeded onward, and still onward, till the eyes of the 
world were turned with admiration on the genial scholar, who, 
with placid calmness, courageously trampled appalling diffi- 
culty under foot, and gained the first place among his country- 
men as the historic instructor of mankind. 

The excellence of his productions is, in part, transparent 
to every reader. Compare what he has written with the most 
of what others have left on the same subjects, and Prescott's 
superiority beams upon you from the contrast. The easy flow 



10 

of his language, and the faultless lucidity of his style, may 
make the reader forget the unremitting toil which the narra- 
tive has cost ; but the critical inquirer sees everywhere the 
fruits of investigation rigidly pursued, and an impartiality and 
soundness of judgment, which give authority to every state- 
ment, and weight to every conclusion. 

Each of Prescott's works has a charm of its own ; the first 
has the special attraction that belongs to the earliest but thor- 
oughly matured fruit of his youthful aspirations. In the 
" Conquest of Mexico," a subtle, scarce perceptible, yet all- 
pervading warmth underlies the style of the whole work, run- 
ning through every sentence from the first to the last. The 
plastic power of the author in moulding crude and incongru- 
ous and forbidding materials into shape and unity and life, 
appears most conspicuously in the " Conquest of Peru." In 
his last work we discern in the highest degree the hand of the 
master. Years seemed only to renew the freshness of his 
talent, enhance the brilliancy of his coloring, and confirm the 
vigor of his grasp. I remember hearing Bryant, in his eulogy 
on Fenimore Cooper, speak with wondering admiration of the 
undimmed lustre of invention which he displayed in one of 
his works written when he was more than fifty years old ; 
Prescott's last volume was finished after he was sixty, and it 
is a perfect model of skill in narration. Every statement is 
the result of most elaborate research, and yet, as he passes 
from court to country, from valley to mountain range, from 
Spain to the Levant, among Moors and Turks and Christians, 
and Corsairs from Barbary, his movements are as easy and 
graceful as those of the humming-bird as it dives after honey 
among the flowers of summer ; and his pictures of battles are 
as vivid as though the sun had taken them in its brightest 
colors at the very moment they were raging. 

In the writings of Prescott his individual character is never 
thrust on the attention of his readers ; but, as should ever be 
the case in a true work of art, it appears only in glimpses, or 
as an abstraction from the whole. Yet his personality is the 
source of the charm of his style, and all who knew him will 
say, he was himself greater and better than his writings. 



11 

While his histories prove him to have felt that he owed his 
time to the service of mankind, everything about him marked 
him out to be the most beloved of companions, and the life 
and joy and pride of society. 

His personal appearance itself was singularly pleasing, and 
won for him everywhere in advance a welcome and favor. 
His countenance had something that brought to mind " the 
beautiful disdain" that hovers on that of the Apollo. But 
while he was high spirited, he was tender and gentle and hu- 
mane. His voice was like music, and one could never hear 
enough of it. His cheerfulness reached and animated all 
about him. He could indulge in playfulness, and could also 
speak earnestly and profoundly ; but he knew not how to be 
ungracious or pedantic. In truth the charms of his conversa- 
tion were unequalled, he so united the rich stores of memory 
with the ease of one who is familiar with the world. 

In his friendships he was most faithful, true to them al- 
wa}'s ; true to the last ; never allowing his confidence to be 
so much as ruffled by the noisy clamors of calumny, or by rivalry, 
or by differences of opinion. In the management of his affairs 
he was prudent and considerate ; in his expenditures liberal to 
all about him ; and to those in want, ever largely generous, 
having an open hand, but doing good without observation. 
His affections rested early and happily on the congenial object 
of his choice, and the rosy light of his youth, never dimmed 
by a cloud, went with him all his way through life. 

Brothers of the Historical Society, I see among you those 
who knew Prescott as a friend ; we join the cultivated world 
in honoring his memory ; we mingle our tears with those of 
his family. Standing as it were by his grave, we cannot re- 
call anything in his manner, his character, his endowments, 
or his conduct, that we could wish changed. If he had faults, 
his associates loved him too well to find them out. We, none 
of us, know of his writing one line that he could wish to blot, 
or uttering a word of which the echo need be suppressed. 
Those of us who are growing old must bear in mind that he 
has gone but a little before us ; his spirit speaks to you, young 
men, charging you to emulate him in the culture of intelli- 
gence and the practice of virtue. 



12 

The Rev. Dr. Osgood said : 

It would ill become me, Mr. President, to speak at this 
time and in this presence, were it not for the friendly hint 
that makes it more an act of deference than of assumption in 
me to add a passing word to what has been so fitly said to- 
night of our great Historian's worth. We cannot, of course, 
hope on such an occasion as this to do justice to every aspect 
of his labors, and I can only allude to one aspect of them, that 
is second to none other — I mean his service as an educator of 
American youth in literary taste, historical learning, and high 
humanity. 

My pursuits, which are chiefly pastoral and educational, 
lead me to think more of the elevation of the many than the 
refining of the few, and in this habit of thought I am led to 
regard Prescott as one of the most valuable teachers of the 
young people of our country. He is read by a large class of 
youth who are seldom fascinated by ponderous historic lore, 
and if the estimate were made of the circulation of his works 
in the whole nation, based upon facts well known as to their 
circulation in familiar localities, it would be found that our 
bright girls and boys had by themselves paid the historian a 
tribute sufficient alike in its material and moral worth, to give 
him fame as an author and worth as a patriot. No thought- 
ful man will slight this view of a writer's labors, and whilst 
our Historical Societies fitly frame honorary resolutions, and 
make commemorative addresses, and we, as Americans, feel 
proud of the honors won for our national literature by the tri- 
butes that will soon come from the great European academies, 
we must not forget that our historian is judged by a tribunal 
more authoritative than ours, and the solid, practical mind of 
our people, acting for themselves and their children, must de- 
cide his place in the future. The decision, so far as we can 
judge, is most auspicious, and Prescott's style, subjects and 
character, give him place among our household names and 
our national teachers. 

His style is clear and flowing, graphic without being rheto- 
rical, and pointed without being overstrained ; a style at once 
so fascinating in its easy narrative, and so satisfying by its 



13 

obvious truth, as eminently to please and instruct young 
readers who desire to win knowledge without weariness. 
This fact may perhaps with some critics imply a defect, and lam 
aware that Prescott is classed by some persons more among 
the annalists than the philosophers of history, and is thought 
to purchase transparency at the cost of depth. But there is 
surely such a thing as having philosophy without its abstrac- 
tions, and stating events and portraying characters so truly 
vnd so aptly, that they tell their own story and sequences, as 
the rivers that are permitted to flow from their mountain 
sources freely in their own providential channels, show their own 
origin, course, and outlet, without any technical engineering to 
grade their banks or cipher out their direction. History, like 
human life, gives most wisdom when its facts are most dis- 
tinctly presented, and the events and characters of the past, 
like the present, as soon as they can be distinctly seen, are 
quite ready to speak for themselves. It may be that Prescoti; 
is not to be ranked with the great philosophical historians, 
and that he is more the Xenophon than the Thucydides of our 
letters. In one respect we are quite willing to accept the 
parallel, and to claim for him Xenophon's heroic as well as 
literary fame. That great Greek general had courage as 
well as eloquence, and his conduct in the memorable retreat of 
the Ten Thousand was as noble as the style that immortalized 
it. Our American Xenophon led a retreat quite as heroic ; and 
when stern Providence bade him turn away from the active 
cares of his first profession, and almost shut his eyes towards 
the scenes of nature and the faces of friends, and led him to 
seclude himself among books, this retreat was a victory, 
and he won honors unsurpassed in the annals of the heroes of 
letters. His style itself, whether consciously or unconsciously 
to himself, has a charm, from the fact of his triumph over such 
difficulty, and our young people follow him through his lumi- 
nous pages as a brave leader who carries the torch of learning 
before the banner of conquest. 

His subjects confirm the interest in him that is won by his 
style. The history of this New "World is divided mainly into 
two great departments, the one department treating of the 



14 

contact of the Spanish race and its kindred races with our 
hemisphere, the other department treating of the contact of 
the British race and its kindred with our hemisphere. The 
leaders in these two departments of history are represented 
here to-night, one as the eulogized, the other as the eulogist. 
Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, and Conquest ef Mexico 
and Peru, tell the story of the discovery and colonization of 
the continent by Spain ; and his History of Philip II. gives us 
the great reaction of the old despotisms upon the new liberties 
of Europe, which called into being the Dutch Republic, con- 
solidated the British Eeformation, and thus prepared the way 
for the second great colonization of America under our own 
forefathers. Prescott thus lays before us the work of Spain in 
America, and the connecting link between the Spanish and 
British colonizations. He who has spoken to us not as his rival, 
but his brother historian, to-night, has, in his great life-work, 
taken up the story at the point where it is thus left, and the 
tribute just now so fitly paid by Bancroft to Prescott not only 
expresses a personal friendship, but suggests a literary succes- 
sion. It is well that with this involuntary division of the two 
great divisions of our history between them, they have united 
not only amicable, but cordial social relations ; and it is not 
improper for me to say, that but a few days ago I read, in a 
letter fresh from Prescott's own hand, the warmest expressions 
of regard and even of gratitude to our friend who has just taken 
his seat, for unbroken kindness and valuable personal service. 
From the very nature of the subjects treated by Prescott 
in such an attractive and elaborate way, we are justified in 
expecting for him a lasting and growing name among the 
educators of American thought. As our New World takes 
its Providential place in the destinies of humanity, the history 
of its original relations to the Old World will have increasing 
interest, and as, moreover, the very nations and principles 
whose collisions form the history of the Christendom of Fer- 
dinand and Philip, are meeting anew in themselves or their 
representatives in the significant questions of our current poli- 
tics and religion, fresh local and temporal interest may invest 
the historian's classic page, and add the zest of the new times 



15 

to the annals of the old ages. If Spain and America come 
near together again in treaty or dispute, it will be happy for 
us if a temper as kindly, a purpose as liberal, and a vision as 
broad as our historian's shall rule the policy of our nation, and 
keep alike our honor and our peace. Surely the two hemis- 
pheres must belong ever to one great humanity, and whenever 
they touch each other, whether to clasp hands or cross bayonets, 
both parties will be gainers by keeping Prescott's name in 
remembrance. 

However much we may be charmed by genius or talent 
without respect to character, it is undeniable that personal 
worth adds vastly to the power of the author's service, and 
that young people are especially acted upon by authors who 
unite literary merit with personal excellencies, and especially 
with manly energy. I will not venture to add any thing to 
the finished portraiture of character just presented to you, 
yet I may properly say that the heroic element in Prescott's 
literary life is one of the powers of his fame. Our young 
people know how bravely his grandfather fought at Bunker 
Hill, and with his little band of raw recruits so long held the 
rude intrenchment against the British army. The stout old 
Continental colonel who then looked without flinching upon 
those British bayonets, was fitting ancestor of our historian, 
and the soldier's sword was no more courageous than the 
scholar's pen. The scholar, in his almost blindness, attacked 
the heavy fortresses of Spanish erudition, mastered their con- 
tents as they were never before mastered, and the fruits of 
his pen are the trophies of his courage. 

May we not then be grateful to the man who gives us 
such wealth of instruction and pleasure, with influence so ele- 
vating and energizing to ourselves and our sons and daugh- 
ters. Our debt is more than what is due to mere genius. 
Our historian's gift was in a measure bom in his large nature, 
but in a greater measure won by his noble endeavor. If a 
man's birth-day fitly commemorates his native genius, and the 
day of his death seals and symbolizes his personal worth, we 
may well remember gratefully both dates in Prescott's career, 
and surely never forget the hour that ended his labors and 



16 

crowned his fidelity. The early Christians celebrated not the 
birth-days, but the death-days of the Martyrs ; as to them the 
death of the body was thought to be the blessed birth of the 
soul. There was too much that was genial and happy in his 
life to allow us in sincerity to claim for him a Martyr's sacri- 
ficial honors, yet we may be quite sure that not a few have 
won that palm by labors and sacrifices less enduring and 
heroic than his. There is much sadness in his death, but more 
joy ; joy that he has done so well, and that millions are to be 
the heirs of his wealth and his example. 

I have kept you too long by my imperfect words, and 
perhaps without meaning it, I have ventured upon an off- 
hand speech on a subject that demands the careful meditation 
and polished diction, that it has at other hands received here 
to-night. My purpose, however, may excuse the presump- 
tion, and you are clearly not unwilling to have these crude 
thoughts thrown out before the New York Historical Society 
on the services of William Hickling Prescott, as one of the 
Educators of the American people and their children. 

The Resolutions were adopted unanimously, and the So- 
ciety adjourned. 






Proceedings of the New York Historical Society, 



ON THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DEATH OF 

WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT, 

FEBRUARY, MDCCCLIX. 





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